Posts Tagged ‘QANTAS’

The Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA) has published its second annual list of the world’s ten safest airlines. The Geneva-based operation based its list on an assessment of 15 factors, using 2010 data.

SIA has not made it into the top 10 again. This year, its greatest rival, Qantas, made it into the top 10.

Only one of the ten airlines in ATRA’s list (Qantas) makes it into the top ten of the most recent Skytrax world airline awards, which are derived from over 18m passenger responses and have a much more Middle Eastern/Asian tone. This either suggests that passengers do not consider safety when naming their favourite carriers, or they disagree with ATRA’s particular emphasis.

Anyway, I’m publicising this rating so that the likes of KennethJ, Chris balding, Dr Chee and his sis, Richard Wan and other TRE staffers and avid readers, TOC editorial staffers and Core Team, xmen and others of their kind, have a good excuse not to patronise SIA. They can fly Qantas instead. Actually, Dr Chee already has a good excuse already: he can’t leave S’pore without permission, and I don’t think permission has ever been given.

Yesterday, a piece in MediaCorp’s freesheet by an NTU academic reminded me of the narrative that the PM and our “constructive”, “nation-building” local media are trying to tell us about the Qantas dispute, strikes, lock-out and all. It is about a struggling airline trying to cut costs to compete but its unionised workers are prepared to bankrupt it if their demands are not met.

There is truth to this narrative. What the unions fear most is a plan announced in August that would cut 1,000 jobs and some long-haul routes while setting up a new premium airline based somewhere in Asia and forming a joint venture to operate a low-cost carrier in Japan. The unions want guarantees of job security. Qantas says that these and other demands risk destroying its commercial viability.

What you won’t hear, from the PM or the local media or the NTU academic, is that it could be possible that Qantas could be more generous to the workers, and still remain competitive.

If the dispute goes to arbitration (what Qantas wants and which is now likely to happen), the eventual ruling may not be in Qantas’s favour overall, Australian analysts are saying. Since its domestic routes are highly profitable, the arbitrator may decide it can afford to be more generous to workers than it claims.

“Trust No One” especially our local reporters and editors, and local academics writing in the local media. But let’s be fair to our local media. Writing before World War II, George Orwell observed, “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper”. He was referring to the British press.

Qantas has unveiled its strategy to meet the competition from low-cost carriers.

What is interesting is that it has taken a different approach from SIA, another legacy airline. SIA is planning to add a low-cost carrier to complement its existing premium and other legacy services. This is a conservative approach but one that risks cannibalising customers from its non-premium legacy services

But Qantas is taking a more aggressive approach. It is turning Qantas into a low-cost carrier with a premium service subsidary that will be based in Asia.